Glaxo Urges Sweeping International Patent Reforms In Letter To Blair

Law360, New York (November 29, 2004, 12:00 AM EST) -- GlaxoSmithKline has sent a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which the U.K. drug maker urges Blair to use his presidency of the G8 group of industrialized nations to push through sweeping international patent reforms.

In the letter, signed by Glaxo executive Jean-Pierre Garnier, the drug maker calls for a system of "transferable exclusivity" for patents, where the development of a drug for a developing world disease is rewarded by an extension of patent protection for a developed world medicine, the Independent newspaper reported....